Behavioral Enrichment

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Behavioural enrichment improves the quality of life of animals in captivity by stimulating the animals
both physically and mentally to carry out tasks that challenge them and that simulate their natural
behavior in the wild. In the wild animals are constantly required to think and perform tasks to find food,
shelter and avoid danger. One of the biggest problems with captive animals is providing enough stimuli
to keep them happy and healthy. Boredom in captive animals can quickly lead to physical manifestations
like poor grooming or aggression. Any ideas are welcome on new ways to do this. We try to stimulate
foraging behavior by hiding the food around the cages. Making and replacing toys for the animals to
play with. We have few workers and so the task of enrichment is greatly improved by our volunteers who
provide the extra manpower to focus on this task.

Enriching the Boa constrictor cage with plants from their natural habitat.
Enriching the capuchin cage is a constant task as they are highly intelligent and are quickly bored.
The volunteers here are tying up ropes for the capuchins to exercise on.